ABSTRACT
This chapter describes how England’s education ministry, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES), plans, commissions and uses education research, and discusses various resulting issues and current debates particularly on access and uptake of research. The focus for the chapter is on schools research and the programme of work to support ‘evidence informed policy and practice’, since this is the author’s own background, although readers should note that the Department’s policy brief covers the whole education system, from pre-school to higher education. It also has responsibility for general child welfare issues, including aspects of health and social work located in the Children, Young People and Families Directorate which has oversight of the government’s ‘Every Child Matters’ agenda: a wide-ranging set of principles, programmes and activities that are intended to improve the well-being of children and young people from birth to age 19.
